Hoping to boost their investment returns and shrink
looming deficits, public pension systems across the nation have been turning to
riskier investments, such as private equity and hedge funds. But their returns
haven't been rising nearly as much...

The lawfulness of employer's social-media policies under
the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) continues to be a hot topic. Although
the position of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) continues to be
hostile towards these policies. And...

With Easter and Passover almost upon us, what better
topic than a new case on the ministerial exception to Title VII?
A federal judge in Ohio has recently refused
to dismiss * a lawsuit brought by a former teacher at a Catholic school who
alleged...

A teacher's aide in Michigan was disciplined for
refusing the request of the school district superintendent to show him her
Facebook profile page at a meeting. She had posted a picture sent to her
by a co-worker which showed the co-worker's...

You
May Be Eligible For Unemployment In PA If You Quit Your Job
If you quit your job, you may be eligible for PA unemployment benefits if you
had a necessitous and compelling reason to quit . Here are some of
the most common examples of a necessitous...

A severance agreement helps to allow businesses to ensure
that former employees don't sue. The concept is fairly simple: in exchange for
$X, the former employee agrees to release the company from every claim under
the sun from the beginning of...

On Donna Ballman's blog, Screw You Guys, I'm Going Home , she
argues for a radical change to at-will employment. She believes that
unemployment hearing officers should have the power to reinstate, with back
pay, anyone fired without just cause...

Most employers can fire you for any reason or no reason
at all. As I say in my upcoming book, that means they can fire you because they
didn't like your shoes that day. Or, as it turns out, the
color of your shirt .
The law definitely needs...

Here's
the good news: According to a recent survey conducted by FileTrek , 79% of Americans
believe that removing confidential files from the office is grounds for
termination. Here's the bad news: 90% think that employees do it anyway. What...

Now in autotune .
(Betcha didn't expect that).
Yesterday, we were rapping (without the benefit of
autotune) about immigration status and unlawful discrimination and
concluded that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 does not prohibit...

Anytime any piece of the NLRB takes action with regard to
an employer's social media policy, it's newsworthy (even if you're getting
tired of reading about it). Such is the case with G4S Secure
Solutions (USA) Inc. (3/29/12) [pdf] , decided...

Employers who require job-seekers to turn over their
Facebook passwords remain a mystery to me. Really, what are they thinking? As
if the potential negative publicity alone is not enough of a deterrent, you'd
think that employers would be aware...

Here's a strange little case for ya . . .
A loss prevention manager for a major retail store chain
-- we'll call her "Loretta" -- had some performance issues in the
past but was only five days away from the satisfactory completion...

The subject of employer compelled disclosure of employee social media passwords has swept the blog and news worlds. Facebook has weighed in on the subject, and Senators Blumenthal and Schummer have asked the EEOC and the Department of Justice to investigate...

Ever heard of the phrase "sustained remunerative
employment?" In the world of workers' compensation, it means that if you are
earning money, or capable of earning money, you cannot be eligible for an award
of PTD (permanent total disability...

Reuters is reporting that a union representing employees at
a New York grocery chain has asked the NLRB to investigate whether the store's
social media policy is violates employees' rights to engage in protected
concerted activity under the...

When Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) signed HB 1001 in
February - making the Hoosier State the 23rd overall and the first since
Oklahoma a decade earlier to adopt so-called "right-to-work"
legislation that allows workers to avoid paying union...

No. In New York, a company may not deduct from an
employee's paycheck, charge against an employee's wages , or require an employee to reimburse the company for,
monetary losses to the company, even if the employee's carelessness caused the...

In most discrimination cases, you only have to prove
discrimination was one of the motives your employer had in taking action
against you. For instance, if you announce you're pregnant and are suddenly
included in a mass layoff where others with...

It's taken awhile for courts to start applying the
ADAAA-the January 1, 2009, amendments to the Americans with Disabilities Act
that rendered everyone with a medical condition disabled for
purposes of the disability discrimination law. With one...

If your job makes you want to kill yourself, are you a
"direct threat" to your own safety?
In what has to be one
of the weirdest ADA cases I've seen , a woman (let's call her
"Gladys") was hired as a temp for a tech company...

Last Saturday was St. Patrick's Day, and many employees
celebrated it on Friday by wearing green and getting together after work.
A
story reported that 14 employees of a Florida law firm were fired for
wearing orange shirts. Traditionally, the...

by Tracey
B. Eberling
Late last month, in the culmination of almost a year's
work, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) adopted a four-year
strategic plan for 2012-16.
The three stated goals of the plan are to:
Combat...